Copa de Tejas reiterated what organizers have said all along. Finding a niche for professional soccer in this market will not be easy.

Attendance was disappointing at this year's matches, but officials said that is not deterring them from their goal of growing the sport and bringing world-class soccer here on a regular basis.

Only 8,364 fans turned out for Thursday's match between Everton and Pachuca. The big match of the tournament between Everton and Club America on Sunday drew only 16,434 fans.

"It's a slow, long process, but we're going to work at it because we know there's a base of the community out there that appreciates the efforts that we're putting forward for them," said Jamey Rootes, president of Lone Star Sports and Entertainment and a senior vice president of the Texans.

Lone Star Sports, a division of the Texans, has hosted five events as part of the Texas International Soccer Series. Thursday's crowd was the smallest of any previous soccer game hosted by Lone Star Sports. Sunday's was third-smallest.

Take lumps, move on

Rootes didn't want to dwell on or discuss financial details about the event.

"You always have to add everything up, but it was a positive experience for us," Rootes said. "It's not something you get rich on, but it certainly went well enough for us to be still enthusiastic about hosting events of that type and continuing to build.

"If you're going to be part of something special, you have to work hard and remain committed, and we certainly are committed to providing world-class matches of that type."

Lone Star Sports has more soccer on the way in January. The next event will be the return of InterLiga, an annual tournament held in different venues across the United States in which the top clubs in Mexico play for two berths in the prestigious Copa Libertadores.

Reliant Stadium drew an InterLiga-record crowd in January when 31,143 fans watched Club America play Tigres.

"InterLiga will be our next significant opportunity, and I know the success we had in 2004 will help us build momentum much earlier for InterLiga among the soccer fans in Houston," Rootes said. "That's what we're going to do. We're going to take InterLiga as our next important property and begin working as quickly as we can to start building support for the InterLiga games."

'A building process'

Copa de Tejas also is on the agenda for next summer even though the previous matches have drawn the smallest crowds. Last year's event between Cruz Azul and Tigres drew only 16,054 fans.

Organizers tried to broaden its fan base this time by bringing in Everton of the English Premier League. While a few thousand Everton fans did turn out both days, the Mexican teams remained the biggest draws.

"It is a building process, and some things will be very attractive and some things might not be attractive," Rootes said. "The most important thing for us is to be actively involved in the international soccer community, and we are. Because we've hosted games like this, we are very active and people are still talking about Houston as a very vibrant soccer market, which is great."

Lone Star Sports knows it will be hard to top its first match between the U.S. and Mexican national teams, which drew a sell-out crowd of almost 70,000. But Lone Star Sports is serious about building a good reputation as a host for world-class soccer events.

Now the task is continuing to build respect and maintain momentum by hosting events of all sizes.

"You've got to be in the game," Rootes said. "You can't just come and cherry pick. You've got to do it consistently, and that's what we're doing."